David Malinsky
4* Braves / Dodgers Under
Through the first two games of this series these two teams are tied at 2-2 in runs, and there is nothing fluky about it – there have only been three extra base hits through the entire set, none of them from the punchless Dodgers. We do not believe that form changes here in a Vicente Padilla/Jair Jurrjens hookup, and with no major fatigue ratings to be found from either bullpen, it is another pitcher’s duel.
Padilla has worked to a 5-2/2.22 since coming off of the DL, with a sparkling count of 54 K’s vs. only 41 hits allowed, and while the box score shows signs of struggling at Philadelphia in his last outing, we have to take that with a grain of salt – he was given an early 7-1 lead, and allowed to go into a coast mode. Joe Torre used that lead to get him out after only 83 pitches, which makes him even fresher for this setting (he has only 100 pitches once since the All Star break).
The Jurrjens story is similar to that of Padilla – he is undervalued because of early injury problems, with his stuff since coming off of the DL much better than this overall charts will show. In four starts from this mound since returning to the rotation it has been a 4-0/1.82, and in truth the only subpar statistical outing in his eight outings since the DL stint requires an * - he was charged with five earned runs over 6.2 innings at Cincinnati, but note that he led that one 2-1 into the bottom of the 7th. It was a solid outing, and a struggling Dodger lineup that lacks much experience against him will not turn that form around.